Dim All the Lights

"Dim All the Lights" is a song by Donna Summer released as a single in the latter half of 1979. Taken from her Bad Girls album and produced by longtime collaborator Giorgio Moroder with Pete Bellotte, the track combines Summer's trademark disco beats with a more soulful/R&B-esque sound. This was the third top two single from the album and her sixth consecutive top five single in a row.

Background

Hot on the heels of previous back-to-back successes "Hot Stuff" and "Bad Girls" as well as her "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" duet with Barbara Streisand climbing to #1 at the same time, "Dim All the Lights" was another massive hit for the diva, reaching number two on the US Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and number 29 on the UK Singles Chart.

"Dim All the Lights" was Summer's only hit single that she wrote alone, with no co-writers. She originally intended to give the song to Rod Stewart, but changed her mind at the last minute.^[1]

This song also contains the longest sustained note sung by a female artist in a top 40 song in both the US and the UK, at about sixteen seconds. Played at 45 rpm, the recording starts at a nearly perfect 60 beats per second, then shifts to a nearly perfect 120 beats per second after the doubling in tempo at about 38 seconds (short intro version) or 46 seconds (long intro version).

Official versions

• Album Version – 4:40
• 7" Version – 3:59
• 12" Version – 7:09

Chart positions

Laura Branigan version

Laura Branigan had a Top 40 Dance hit in 1995 with her own faithful cover of the disco classic. The single version appears on her US greatest hits collection, The Best of Branigan. While Branigan's version was released in several mixes by Atlantic Records, a popular version in some Hi-NRG clubs at the time came from DJ-only label Hot Traxx, which gave clubgoers two divas in one song, editing Donna Summer's original in with Branigan's remake. A video for the single, featuring Branigan surrounded by a bevy of drag queens (Miss Understood, Hedda Lettuce, and Vivacious), would be her last, and the release marked the end of her association with the label, as she pulled back from the music scene to care for her husband, who had been diagnosed with cancer.

Track listings

US CD single

1. "Dim All the Lights" – 4:44
2. "Dim All the Lights" (Ehab's Rehab edit) – 4:14

US 12" single

1. "Dim All the Lights" (Stonebridge Main Mix) – 6:39
2. "Dim All the Lights" (Monday Bar Dub) – 6:43
3. "Dim All the Lights" (Stonebridge Straight Mix) – 5:52
4. "Dim All the Lights" (Stonebridge edit) – 3:26
5. "Dim All the Lights" (Ehab's Rehab edit) – 4:14

US 12" Promo single

1. "Dim All the Lights" (Ehab's Rehab Club version) – 5:52
2. "Dim All the Lights" (Ehab's Rehab edit) – 4:14
3. "Dim All the Lights" – 4:44
4. "Dim All the Lights" (Instrumental) – 4:44

Official versions

• Album version – 4:44
• Instrumental – 4:44
• Ehab's Rehab Club version – 5:52
• Ehab's Rehab edit – 4:14
• Stonebridge Main Mix – 6:39
• Stonebridge Straight Mix – 5:52
• Stonebridge edit – 3:26
• Monday Bar Dub – 6:43

Charts

Other cover versions

In 2007 the song was sampled by the French electronic duo Justice, for the song B.E.A.T, which is a re-edit of their song D.A.N.C.E.

References